After writing this, I realized this was an expression of nervousness (for Ted King), hope (for his health AND continuing on in the Tour), and a sort of frustrated sadness (or sad frustration?)...all because I can't imagine what Ted King feels right now. I say "Ted King" and not "Ted" because I am not one of the many fortunate individuals who knows him personally. Although from the hundreds of stories I hear about him, I really need to meet this awesome guy! My only hope is that whatever the day holds tomorrow, he can recover - emotionally and physically - and grow for the part of cycling's future that he is.
Let me begin with this: It was the start of the 2012 Dempsey Challenge. It was miserable. 41F, steady rain, and the pre-ride proceedings felt like an eternity as all the riders stood (shivering/convulsing) in the rain while the required speeches, thank you's, and introductions were made. If this was a race, I would have been annoyed, but this was a wonderful cause, so the emotion of the event made the misery far more bearable. The pros who attended the race were in the same boat as all of us...except maybe a touch better dressed with their sweet sponsor clothing. It was going to be a very long, and very well earned 100 miles...
After the opening kilometers, we caught up to the VIPs and Pros. While riding through this group, I rode next to (and talked to!!!) Ted King for a minute or two. If you knew me 10-15 years ago, my life revolved around skiing. My heroes were guys like Jonny Moseley, Eric Bergoust, Nikki Stone, and Veronica Brenner. Chatting with a guy like Ted King, it was the first time I felt the excitement of that which I had when I was a little kid. That one time I got to "try on" both Jonny Moseley's Mogul & Nikki Stone's Aerials Gold Medals from the 1998 Nagano Olympics...in the same day.
I (unfortunately) do not know Ted King like many of my friends do, but I hope to really get the chance to meet him somewhere down the line...maybe on a 200 Not On 100 event.
So, to the 'recent events'. I know that this REALLY SUCKS about Ted King, given a separated shoulder and only a mere 7 seconds of time for missing the cut. I know he is very highly respected by his teammates, sponsors, and all his competitors and colleagues. He is absolutely loved by the people who like, enjoy, and love the sport of cycling. He represents everything cyclists want to be - as an athlete and, more importantly, as a person. However, these are the rules - sometimes they work as intended and make sense...and sometimes they work as intended and really seriously screw over a really great human being.
Better put: Professional cycling (and the world as a whole) needs more people like Ted King.
That being said, I have every expectation that the actual time for Ted's finish (which seems a bit unsure) should be re-evaluated and ensured that it is, in fact, correct. If it does remain 7 seconds short, I also expect the race organizers to take the fact of stage one's finishing time neutralization into account when passing a judgement on ending Ted's Tour.
If he makes it into stage 5, I pray he steadily gains strength and health AND doesn't permanently damage his body in hopes of recovering enough to complete this first Tour of his. If he does not make stage 5, I look forward to his speedy recovery and him training even harder (if such a thing is possible) than he has in the past to prepare to support his team for the rest of 2013...and to prepare for whatever squad is lucky enough to have him in 2014.
One BIG thing is that clearly he can still ride sufficiently with the separated shoulder. He absolutely CRUSHED a solo TT, instead of the TTT he would have hoped to help crush with the Cannondale squad. The biggest thing though, is if he can recover quickly (or at all) to be the Ted King we all hoped to see in this year's Tour de France. That is up in the air with the seriousness of his injury. He needs to survive 5 more stages and time cuts, two of which have a pretty damn hellish amount/difficulty of climbing...and another that has a lot. Then he gets ONE REST DAY. At that point stages 10-13 are "easy" (ha, 'easy') except for the individual TT, which will be hellish on the shoulder. After that the mountains are here and if he hasn't recovered a lot it up to that point it will be damage control and him playing a support role on Cannondale.
I'm no expert and do not claim to be. I feel like I'm a reasonable person and - most of the time - think before I speak or write. I've only broken my collarbone (and "only" once). When it happened I did ride the next day, but I rode on a trainer for a few weeks and didn't hit the road until I was well healed. So I can't imagine the absolute toughness or horror or fear of future damage that Ted King (and all the injured riders in races) is going through.
#lettedride - whether it be tomorrow (well, technically, 'today' for him) or in a future tour.
Look at this guy. How could you NOT like him!
